Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to shared use of audio or visual resources, and, more specifically, to negotiating control of shared audio or visual resources.
Description of the Related Art
Vehicular audio or visual systems and mobile computing devices (also called multifunction devices) frequently need to transition control of audio or visual resources shared by processes executing on the multifunction devices and processes executing on the vehicle. For example, a user may desire transition between music being played on multifunction device, such as a phone or tablet computer, and navigation instructions or vehicle condition information being provided by the car itself through various processes executing on embedded systems of the car.
With the advent of increasingly networked devices in other environments, desire for shared control of audio and visual resources likewise exists in other contexts, and current tools for, for example, arbitrating control of a television screen in a home entertainment system are complex, clumsy, and frustrating.
Current technology requires crude manual interventions by the user to establish control of output devices such as speakers (e.g., plugging a device into an input jack and pressing a button on the stereo to shift audio from a stereo to a phone). With the proliferation of devices available to users, the increase in services provided by those multifunction devices (e.g., music, video, phone personal assistant, navigation), the increase in services provided by embedded systems (e.g., vehicle telemetry and control, navigation, phone, various configurations of radio, safety information), the need for less error prone and more efficient replacements pressing buttons on the face of a stereo is steadily becoming more urgent.